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Head coach Yutaka Takagi told reporters on Saturday that he was not fully satisfied with practices and that he felt as if there was something missing.  He also felt players were not being vocal enough during workouts.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata's meals on Friday (selected by a nutritionist):

Breakfast @ 7:30am - eggs, ham, natto, white rice, miso soup, yogurt

Lunch @ 12:30pm - beef curry, salad, corn soup, yogurt, a honey and lemon drink

Dinner @ 6:30pm - eel rice bowl, yaki soba, salad, hoikoro (Szechuan pork dish), kani-tama (crab omelet), mizutaki (hot pot), yogurt

Nakahata's hotel room is located on the 12th floor and has a great view of the training facilities (51,975 yen a night).  He watched over practices from his hotel room yesterday and again today.  Nakahata is also getting full reports and video footage of practices.

The Bay Stars announced today that the earliest Nakahata will be allowed to return to the field is February 7 -- while the fever has gone down, he is still having problems with his nose and throat.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta visited the Hiroshima Carp on Friday.

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The Bay Stars held a fan gathering on Friday.  About 1,000 fans attended.  A video message from Nakahata was also shown.

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Yuki Kuniyoshi faced two batters and tossed forty-nine pitches during batting practice today and allowed two could-be hits.  Of the forty-nine pitches he threw, one resulted in a swinging strike, one in a called strike, and twenty-six were called balls.

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Hiroyuki Fukuyama ran 4.2 kilometers in 17 minutes and 15 seconds on Thursday.

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At around 9:44am this morning, Kiyoshi Nakahata waved his hands at players from the balcony off his room during a team meeting.  According to reports, Nakahata went to sleep at 8pm last night and woke up around 6:50am.  He finished off his breakfast around 7:30am and his fever dropped to 36.5 degrees Celsius.  Assuming things do not get worse, Nakahata could return to the field as early as February 5.

Nakahata did watch over practices from his hotel room.

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Two members of the team staff were diagnosed with the flu after their arrivals at spring camp: bullpen catcher on January 31; and scout on February 1.  The team does not plan on testing any players, but they handed out masks today and have prepared some tamiflu.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta, team president Jun Ikeda, and GM Shigeru Takada met with the Nippon Ham Fighters on Thursday.

=== UPDATE 2/4 @ 1:35am

The team announced on Friday that team president Ikeda was diagnosed with influenza A.  He is the fourth person in the organization to catch the flu.

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Nakahata allowed two Yomiuri Giants scouts into the bullpen on Thursday and was later told not to allow any more scouts (from other teams) into the bullpen.

About 1,000 fans showed up on the first day of spring camp, in addition to the 178 members of the media.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta and team president Jun Ikeda visited Hanshin Tigers' camp in Ginoza.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata spent about four minutes hitting forty-one baseballs to Yuki Kuniyoshi, Hiroyuki Fukuyama, and Kota Suda at around 11:30am on Wednesday.  He also swung a missed a number of times.

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Nakahata was diagnosed with the flu today -- head coach Yutaka Takagi will take over while Nakahata recovers.

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Alex Ramirez apparently feels Yuki Yoshimura may be the team's best power hitter and Nakahata is worried about how Yoshitomo Tsutsugo's hitting mechanics are not as good as they were last year.

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Additional Updates (2/3 @ 1:03am)

Kazuhiro Sasaki visited the Ich-gun team on Wednesday.

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Nakahata was upset that players were not properly responding to greetings and questions and called them on it on Wednesday.

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Pitching coach Yu Tomori wants pitchers to throw at least 1,500 pitches during spring camp.  He also expects pitchers to do a lot of running to improve their stamina/conditioning.

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Team owner Haruta and team president Ikeda also met with Chunichi and Yakult.

Yakult Swallows

Head / pitching coach Daisuke Araki is thinking about three lefties (Masanori Ishikawa, Kyohei Muranaka, and Katsuki Akagawa) during their opening series against the Yomiuri Giants.

Yomiuri Giants

Toshiya Sugiuchi did not intend to throw 70 pitches in the bullpen on Wednesday but apparently did because Tetsuya Utsumi threw 80 pitches.

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Shuichi Murata on his hitting: "First I focus on driving the ball the other way and once I get a hang of that, I turn to hitting the big ones. .. My style will be the same anywhere I go."

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Pitchers could have a chance to begin tossing BP as early as February 4.

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

Ryosuke Miyaguni threw 54 pitches and struggled with his control.

Hiroshima Carp

Kenta Maeda twisted his left ankle during early training camp in Okinawa on January 27.  Even though the injury was not serious, Maeda kept his workouts light through to January 30 as a precaution.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Alex Ramirez took BP on the first day of spring camp, something he has not done over the last few years.

Kiyoshi Nakahata told reporters on Tuesday that other than Alex Ramirez, everyone else on the team had to compete for a spot.

Nakahata showed up on the field at 9:07am and showed the media his Yokohama uniform and the number 70.

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Daisuke Miura and Yuki Kuniyoshi left the team hotel at around 6:10 for an early morning walk (lasted about thirty minutes).

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Yoshitomo Tsutsugo took part in a fielding practice session that lasted about forty minutes.  It was originally supposed to last twenty minutes but the time was doubled by Nakahata.  Yuta Naito, attempting a possible position change to the infield, was also part of the group.

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Alex Ramirez spent some time giving Yuki Yoshimura pointers on hitting.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta plans to stick around in Okinawa until Sunday (February 5).

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

Every pitcher at Ginowan tossed a bullpen session with squatting catcher.

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Shun Yamaguchi threw 73 pitches.

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Kentaro Takasaki threw 58 pitches to a squatting catcher.

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Masanori Hayashi threw 50 pitches.

Yakult Swallows

Yoshinori Sato threw 104 pitches last night, 29 of which hit 150km/h or faster on the radar gun.

Hiroshima Carp

Kenta Maeda struggled with his control in the first (he walked 3 batters in one inning for the first time since turning pro; he also needed 38 pitches to get out of the inning) but managed to settle down in the second (retired the side in order).  Seems part of the problem had to do with the new baseball -- he had a hard time getting used to the new baseballs each time they were swapped out (something you normally don't think about working on during bullpen sessions).

Maeda also threw 15 fork balls yesterday (out of a total 51).

Yokohama Bay Stars

Takao Obana would like to decide on his opening day starter about 10 days before the start of the regular season.   The possibilities include Naoyuki Shimizu, Tomokazu Oka, and Shogo Yamamoto.

Brent Leach started a practice game against the Samsung Lions today and tossed 3 shutout innings while giving up 1 hit.  Clayton Hamilton followed and gave up a run (on a solo homer) over 2 innings of work.  Brandon Mann entered the game in the 6th and had a rough going, walk three batters and then giving up a grand slam.  Futoshi Kobayashi (2 innings) and Shun Yamaguchi (1 inning) did not allow any runs to score over the final 3 frames of the game.

On offense, Keijiro Matsumoto collected a bit 2-run double to left-center in the 7th that tied the game at 5.  And Noriharu Yamazaki came through with the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 9th with runners on first and second and 2 out.

Final Score: Bay Stars 6 - Lions 5

The Yokohama Bay Stars closed out their spring camp in Ginowan, Okinawa today.

Hiroki Sanada threw 50 pitches in the bullpen today.  Sanada is making his way back from right knee surgery and began the year at Ni-gun spring camp.  He was called up to Ichi-gun spring camp for the start of the 5th block (2/23) and has continued to show improvement.

Sanada - "I'm doing a lot better than I thought I'd be doing.  I'd like to pitch in maybe 2 Ikusei League games before being called up to the Ichi-gun roster.  Hopefully I'll be ready for the start of the regular season."

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Brett Harper was held out today's exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants after he hurt his left index finger (base of the finger) during BP yesterday.  Tests performed at a hospital today revealed no fractures.